Ultra-slick, hyper-violent, relentlessly eccentric and with a running time sufficiently bloated enough for you to scarf down a large popcorn (and then some!), ‘John Wick: Chapter 4’ might not be a cinematic outing for all tastes, but those who are especially picky about action films have a new classic to relish….for this movie is grand scale epic.
I really would like to see the physical script for ‘Chapter 4’, because I’m imagining about 150 pages, maybe 8 of them with actual dialogue. The remainder? Action directions, outlining the high-octane destruction and combat choreography, half of which would make you ponder, “How the heck are they going to film THAT?!”.
The plot of the sequel has Wick (Keanu Reeves), together with the Bowery King (Laurence Fishburne) uncovering a plan to rid themselves of the High Table once and for all. Ian McShane returns as the scene-stealing Winston, owner of the Continental Hotel, and the late Lance Reddick makes his bow as the concierge, Charon. Leading the army….and I DO mean army….of bad guys for this round is Marquis (Bill Skarsgard), the cold-hearted but very stylishly dressed Marquis. He’s like a Bond villain that wandered OUT of the Bond film in a search for something more ruthless; well, with ‘John Wick: Chapter 4′, he found it.
Reeves is the undisputable star, though, and he continues to evolve this character to an even higher level of cool, something you likely didn’t think was possible. And though you have some game changing artistry served up by director Chad Stahelski, it’s still the titular hero that comes across as the biggest and baddest presence at any given moment. And that can’t be easy when you’re constantly tossed into delightful bundles of adrenaline and chaos. The batch of goodies include an extended punch-em-up/shootout in a ritzy hotel in which the thugs just keep on comin’, plus a seemingly never-ending car chase/shootout on the streets of Paris in which the thugs just keep on comin’, and a vicious brawl/shootout on Paris’ famous Montmartre stairs in which the thugs….you guessed it…just keep on comin’.
There’s even a wonderful nod via the storyline to one of the most underrated action flicks of all time, 1979’s ‘The Warriors’, a sentimental fave to me. If I didn’t already love ‘John Wick: Chapter 4’ by that point, there was some serious adoration going on when they unleashed that!
